


11) Laying the ground work

by Munnin



Series: Hugin Chronicles [11]
Category: Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 02:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10912668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Munnin/pseuds/Munnin
Summary: Sera and D'rue scout ahead to get to know the Rus sisters.





	11) Laying the ground work

**Author's Note:**

> Red Mist Squad based on characters created by Joe Hogan for the [ The Siren of Dathomir](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3z0kyf53Ds) and [ Panic Over Muunilinst ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3-_EnhMEDE). Stolen, run away with, and abused with his permission.
> 
> The Grey Jedi and Odd Squads are original characters based on members of the CSWCC. The original Argument’s End series can be found [here](http://munnin.dreamwidth.org/tag/grey+jedi+verse).

Sera was gearing up when Crispy knocked on her door. She smiled to him as she buckled on her holsters. “I was hoping I’d see you before we left.”

He fiddled with the hem of his shirt. Even after two days, he hasn’t gotten use to being out of armour. The others had taken to the End immediately. Skate and Jat had vanished as soon as they met the flyboys of Fidelis squad. Lark and Fernie had taken to speaking a medical language no-one else understood, or wanted to understand. Rezz and Wrathor had only left firing range to sleep; and when they did their clothes and hair stinking of cordite and ozone. 

Only Fordo and Crispy hadn’t found a degree of welcome. But not for lack of trying on the Odds’ behalf. 

Fordo knew there was something Crispy hadn’t made his peace with. And he was willing to wait for his lieutenant to work things through. 

It had taken Crispy the whole time they’d been on the End to work up the courage to talk to Sera. He understood from the Odds that she wasn’t a Jedi. Somehow, that made it easier. Easier than the imposing Jedi Commander. 

And right now she was studying him, leaving the space open for him to talk. 

When he didn’t, she nodded. “Crispy, is there a message you’d like me to pass on to Hugin, if we make contact? You can record a holo, if you’d rather not say it in front of me.”

He swallowed, once again feeling wrong not to be wearing his armour. To be so exposed. “Do you think you will find him?”

She nodded. “Not this trip. But eventually, yes.”

“Because you always get your man?” He asked, a little bitterly. “That’s why the council sends you?” 

“Me specifically or the Grey Jedi in general.” Sera grinned. “I generally get my man, yes. But seriously, we’ll find your brother. And between him and you and us, we’ll work out what’s best for him.” 

Crispy took a deep breath, almost as if he’d been holding it for too long. “Thank you.” 

Having made that decision, he found himself telling her everything – from how the mission on Kamino went wrong, to the moment on Malastare when seeing Hugin across the crowd hit him like a lightning bolt. And then Silvestri VII and Eva Rus’ righteous anger. 

He found himself opening up to her about more than just the facts of the mission. About the guilt of knowing the mess on Kamino was his fault. The fear the others would blame him for leaving Hugin behind. The gnawing self-blame every day since. The way Eva Rus’ words had cut deep, and how angry he’d felt that she dared to lay claim to Hugin. 

Sera sat at his side, letting him talk, letting him get it off his chest. A year and more of pain and hurt that had been building and building, finally finding an outlet. 

Eventually the gush of words slowed to a trickle and stopped, leaving Crispy feel wrung out but lighter. Sera give his back a gentle rub. “Thank you for confiding in me. It will help me help him.”

Her wrist comm buzzed and she flicked it off. “I’ve got to go. We’re in orbit around Silvestri VII. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Hopefully with news.” She got up, patting his shoulder. “Will you do me a favour while we’re away?”

“Of course.” Crispy felt ridiculously grateful to her, willing to agree to almost anything.

“Will you kick Tori’s ass for me at hoopball, or sparring, or _something_? We’re taking Rocker with us as a scout. He and Tori are tight and I know he worries. If someone doesn’t distract him, he starts finding his own distraction. I don’t want to come back to discover he’s taking part of the ship apart. Again.” And it would do Crispy good to talk to someone else who worried about a brother. 

“I think I can do that.” Crispy nodded. “Thanks again.”

*** 

D’rue was waiting in the hangerbay, leaning on Sera’s ship and dressed down in civilian clothes. “He came to you. Knew he would.”

“And why, pray tell, were you so convinced it was me he’d come to?” She asked haughtily. She turned to let him clip his sabre to the holster along her spine. Her part of the mission wasn’t going to involve having to take her shirt off. And even incognito, D’rue didn’t like being far from his sabre. 

“You’re a _nice person_.” He teased, giving her a hip-flick once the sabre handle was secured. He somehow managed to make it an insult. “People confide in you.”

“I hate you, you know.” She grinned, returning the shove before pulling her jacket on, the pleated back-panel hiding the line of the holster perfectly. 

“Oh, I know.” He grinned back, climbing up into the ship but pausing to touch the little comm. implanted in his ear. “Rocker and Dha just touched down. They’ll circle around the site and take up position.”

Sera strapped in and guided her sleek little ship out into space, Silvestri VII appearing below them as a ball of green and blue. “Are you sure Dha’s ready? Zig tells me those implants take time to get use to.”

“Lark cleared him and Rocker seems sure. I trust their judgement.” D’rue answered from the seat behind her as they neared the little moon. “He’s settling in well. He’ll be a real asset to the squad.” As the newest member of the Odds, D’rue had kept a particular watch over Dha and was glad when Tem and Rocker had recommended him for the mission. Adapted optical bypass implants had given the blinded scout back his purpose and drive. 

“Oooh! That’s not standard!” Sera muttered gleefully as an ordinarily undetectable scanning beam raked the Wing’s hull. “Either the Rus sisters have friends in port control or there are some well-to-do information trader calls this place home.”

“Or both.” D’rue pointed out. 

“Or both.” Sera agreed. “Good thing I keep the Wing’s output on rotation, hey?” She popped the hatch, looking pleased.

“How legal is that, exactly?” 

She laughed. “Don’t ask questions you won’t like the answers to.” She teased, checking her crono. “I have a meeting with Eva Rus in ten minutes. I’ll leave you to make your approach.” She unloaded something carefully packed from the cargohold, floating it on a small grav-lifter. “See you on the other side.”

***

Kit-bag on his shoulders, D’rue hit the local cantina; looking and acting for all the worlds like just another itinerate spacer. There were plenty of that kind on Silvestri VII, washing up on tides of traffic or jumping ship along the trade routes. Careful with his credits and polite in his asking, he talked to locals and travellers alike – where work might be found, where was good to eat, where he could find a cheap bunk. 

The sleeveless shirt he wore under his jacket showed off the tattoos on his upper arms. As the moon’s warmth got to him, even under the cantina’s lazy ceiling fans, he shed the jacket, letting the talk naturally turn to skin painting. There was something about the stylised pattern of interwoven creatures, flowing and complex, that tended to draw the eye. 

“Not bad.” One local commented. “Not as good as Rebec’s but… not bad.” 

“This Rebec is painted?” D’rue asked with interest, as if looking for someone to compare paint with.

“Yeah but more importantly, she’s an artist!” Another local chimed it, brimming with almost parental pride. “Damn good one too. Best in the sector.”

D’rue’s eyes lit up. “Great. Does she… do you think she’d see me? I’d really love to get more and if she’s as good as you say-”

Pretty soon more than a few of the locals were rolling up sleeves, and lifting shirts (and in one unpleasant case, dropping trousers) to show off Rebec’s work. Most were small, the sort of simple thing people get as their first or when they don’t have anything serious planned. But Linc’s information had been right – her work was masterful.

Armed with an address and the assurance of the locals, D’rue headed down the same road Sera had taken two hours earlier. 

***

Even if she wasn’t on a mission, Sera was pretty sure she and Eva Rus would have gotten on like a house on fire. The antique high-Naboo headdress she’d brought to trade had won Eva over almost as soon as Sera had opened the crate. But the hours of shop talk over tea had solidified their working relationship. To the point Sera was hoping neither of them had to blow their cover. She would rather like to keep Eva as a contact. And there were more than a few things in Eva’s collection she would happily buy. After some haggling, of course. And Eva had been willing to show Sera the back room of the shop. The place where the real items were kept, not the lower value stock in the shop. 

“It must be safe place, Silvestri VII.” Sera commented, sipping the very fine Alderaan tea Eva had offered her. “Or you have very good security, feeling safe to keep such a stunning collection here?” 

“It’s a pretty safe area. Folks watch out for each other here. And the shop’s far enough off the main drag we don’t get much in the way of foot traffic. Casual thieves don’t tend to come this way.” Eva flashed her a grin. “I’m pretty good with a blaster. And I don’t go in for warning shots. We’re safe enough here.”

“I have my collection tucked away in little storehouses on a few different worlds. Always on the move. Still, I’d have a shop boy, if I ran a place like this.” Sera shrugged, grinning playfully. “If not as a guard then as a bit of eye-candy to lift and carry.” 

“We had someone.” Eva admitted with a sigh, her guard down a little. “Tahl. But I had to send him away.”

Sera raised a questioning eyebrow and nodding towards the young and pretty skin painter currently chatting with a client in the shade of the trees that overhung the shop. “He got a little… _friendly_.”

Eva huffed a laugh. “Yes, but I don’t mind so much. He’s a good man and he treats Rebec well. I wouldn’t mind if they-” she shrugged, not realising she’d slipped from past to present tense. “He has a past. Had to send him away to keep it from catching up with all of us.”

“I’m sure a lot of people wash up somewhere like this to get away from pasts.” Sera mused, lifting her head to listen to the bird song and watch the local parrots shake the branches. “I can see the appeal. I wouldn’t mind washing up somewhere like this. Not here, of course. Wouldn’t want to get under your feet, trade-wise. But I can see why someone might pick here to start again.”

“It was a good choice for Rebec and me. Our folks died in political protest on Serenno. Rebec was just a child. I bundled her up along with as many of my father’s books as I could carry and ran. Most of this came off the back of selling my dad’s library.”

“Paper books? Stars! I can see why you grabbed them. The right buyers-”

Eva shrugged. “Not all of them went to the right buyers. Or were sold for what they were worth. But I made enough on them to get us here, even if I didn’t know this was where we were heading. And to put a down payment on our first booth. Been steadily building things up since then.”

“You’ve done well by her.” Sera nodded sympathetically. “I can see why you’d want her to be happy, and why you’d want to keep her from harm.” After a moment’s consideration, she added, “Is there anything I can do to help? I… I’ve got some contacts. I guess everyone in our trade does but I moonlight as an information broker. And mine network stretches out over a few sectors. They might be able to find out about this young man’s past. See if something can’t be done to keep it from catching up with him. You said they’re fond of each other. Maybe-” She gave the slightly helpless gesture of someone just spitballing ideas. 

Eva give Sera a long, evaluating look, her sea-glass green eyes looking so deep into Sera’s storm grey ones Sera was concerned Eva might suspect something. Finally Eva nodded and held out her hand to Sera. “I think we can trade. That Várangos archer statue I notice you had a particular itch for, in exchange for credible information that will help Tahl settle.” She withdrew her hand a little. “Payment on delivery.” She added sternly. 

Sera laughed warmly. “You drive a hard bargain. And you have a good eye. I am very much enamoured with that statue. You have a deal. Tell me what you know and give me a week to see what I can find out.”


End file.
